"Going back to DIRECTV, we’ve gotten a couple of questions from the audience regarding the equity collar and how that plays out?

Greg Maffei - Liberty Media Corporation - President, CEO

Yes. So the history is LMDIA, Liberty went and bought a whole bunch of incremental shares, about 79 million using a collar and a borrowing. So we borrowed the money from a financial intermediary who collared the stock and then lent us the money to buy the 79 million shares against the puts out of the collar. The stock is about flat, maybe up a little from where we struck the collar so it’s not a plus or minus at the moment. It’s not — the collar’s probably about where it was struck. Neither in the money, nor a cost to the Company. It has effectively a change of controls, so upon the closing of the DTV merger, it could be called by the intermediary. We’re in discussions with the intermediary who may want to change the terms of the collar or the rates. It’s very low right now. It’s paying about LIBOR plus 25. Because effectively the institution is borrowing from itself, given that they wrote the put, they’re lending us the money against the puts out of the collar. It’s a very low cost loan which is why we liked it. One of the things that’s just occurred is that DIRECTV has gone out and done a $2 billion bond issue very successfully, about 225 over LIBOR, Treasury’s very attractive issue that will give them the flexibility, they’re refinancing some of their existing debt, about $900 million being called and give them the flexibility to pay the collar off or not depending on what the terms the intermediary offers. DIRECTV has the flexibility to do either.

Hopefully we’ll reach a successful accommodation with the financial intermediary. But again, we’re not beholden to that. In the event that the collar gets unwound, which eventually it will be unwound as the loan matures, that will cause upward pressure on the stock because it’s a net short position and unwinding it will cause upward pressure on the stock."

I'm of the opinion we can be better off in the future by taking some SIRI profits now and putting it elsewhere. Case in point, today I exchanged 15K shares for 650 in DDD (sacrificing approximately $100 gains in SIRI for $1600 gains so far in DDD today). If this is any indication, then I'm not sure how much longer my SIRI loyalty might hold true.

PS. I exercised a similar maneuver early last week, picking up a new Oil Exploration venture (CNTO) for a mere $10K+ gain so far.
For now, I can't see any problem with this thinking.

EDIT: had typo above......make that 15K shares of SIRI traded for 650 in DDD.............still the right move, in my opinion

NEW YORK, Jan. 22, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- SiriusXM announced today that it plans to release full year and fourth quarter 2013 financial and operating results on Tuesday, February 4, 2014.

SiriusXM will hold a conference call at 8:00 am ET on Tuesday, February 4, to discuss these results. Investors and the press can listen to the conference call via the company's website at investor.siriusxm.com.

Weeks after Liberty Media Corp. invested $2.6 billion in Charter Communications Inc. last spring, Liberty CEO Greg Maffei was moving onto the next step of the company's cable expansion strategy: approaching Time Warner Cable Inc. about a possible merger with Charter. That approach, which became public last June, sparked a takeover battle now in its seventh month.

Last week Charter made its third--and first public--offer to buy Time Warner Cable, a bid valued at $37.4 billion. Time Warner Cable says Charter's proposal is "grossly inadequate," but Charter and Liberty are expected to pursue a proxy battle for control of TWC's board in coming weeks if no deal is reached.

The takeover battle highlights a newly energetic stance by Liberty since Mr. Maffei took the helm at the start of 2006. Earlier this year the company also made a bid to buy minority shareholders out of Sirius XM Radio, now 52% owned by Liberty. In an interview Mr. Maffei, 53 years old, talks about Liberty's need to change its growth strategy, the TWC-Charter battle and his relations with Liberty's controlling shareholder, chairman John Malone.

Edited excerpts:

WSJ: At the Citi investment conference earlier this month, you said Liberty had to find a "new game." What did you mean?

Mr. Maffei: When I got to Liberty we were sitting with a whole bunch of minority stakes, non-control positions. We cleaned those up; we're now in a different position. We need to rethink how we go about creating shareholder value. We need to look at the marketplace, trying to look for durable assets, take advantage of cheap financing and think about trying to build different kinds of value.

WSJ: You said at the same conference that you and John Malone had talked about finding durable assets that you could own for 10-15 years. Is that how long you think you will be there and Mr. Malone will own the business?

Mr. Maffei: John will be here forever because John is the ultimate control shareholder. I suspect I will be here as long as he will let me.

WSJ: Your contract is up at the end of the year. Has it been renewed yet?

Mr. Maffei: It has not. I have had some dialogue with our [board's compensation committee] and some dialogue with John and I'm sure we will come to an agreement. ...We have had some exchanges of term sheets and ideas, we have more than 11 months to get it done, not a pressing problem.

[Mr. Malone, in an emailed statement, describes Mr. Maffei has a "strong partner" who is "capitalizing fully on all" of Liberty's assets.]

WSJ: Though Charter is the company that made the takeover bid, Liberty Media is seen as the driving force in the whole thing. What is Liberty's role?

Mr. Maffei: This deal is clearly being driven by Charter and the strength of the management team there. We have an aligned view with them that consolidation is a real opportunity for the cable industry.

WSJ: Are you putting in more cash to help finance the deal?

Mr. Maffei: We have sent them an indication several months ago that we would be willing to put incremental capital in, both because there may be a need for equity and because Liberty, given its been in the cable business a while, particularly our chairman, is viewed as having some credibility.

WSJ: Have you been involved in talks with Comcast about it participating in the bid?

Mr. Maffei: The cable industry is a fairly small industry. Everybody is talking to everybody about how they might wish to participate. The major players all see some benefit to incremental subscribers so it's safe to assume that everybody is considering or looking at the alternatives about how they might be able to increase their footprint to get scale economies.

WSJ: TWC's stock price is trading well above the value of Charter's latest offer and TWC Chief Executive Rob Marcus says $160 is the price they want. What does Charter do next?

Mr. Maffei: It seems like we are negotiating with a stone wall so that doesn't feel like a very productive discussion. I don't think the proposal put on the table is one that we feel the need to pay.

WSJ: If you are a hedge fund who bought in at $125, say, you will want a higher price than the current market price of $135.

Mr. Maffei: Obviously they want a higher price but I don't believe there is $160 out there from anybody else. So now you are provided with a choice of whatever Charter can put on the table and can be negotiated or believing that the TWC management, who lost 800,000 subscribers in the past year, will turn it around and do better and get you that number on your own. And if you're that hedge fund investor I think that is a very stark choice.

WSJ: Why wouldn't the next step be that Liberty, which is a TWC shareholder, nominate people for the board?

Mr. Maffei: We have not taken any steps off the table.

WSJ: Have any investors indicated to you that they might do that?

Mr. Maffei: We have had shareholders saying they would be interested in supporting such a proposal, driving such a proposal.

Thank you very much for the info. So, let me ask another if I may... from what I read is that after the company is taken over, then they will make a brand new ticker for those SIRI shares or what, like LMCC or something? or does the siri part get lumped in with another ticker that is out there? and what would that be LMCA?

It's my bad, lol, I should ask SIRI questions on the siri board. Other crap on the other crap board.
I guess I'll just look at all my old charts, update and see whether it's time to just let Lassie go.
I'm more than satisfied with what I got out of it, and I guess technically selling at anything above $3 (or even $2 - but that would be pretty dumb) is fine with me.
I'll have to peek at what my buys and sells were on this dog later.